When do you get paid

[Dj_Kray 0]

Hi im just doing this poll because of a couple of gigs latally mucking me arount with payment, i always get paid in the end, im thinking you will all say before a gig which is what i am going to try to do from now on after some great advivce from kazz. also have any of you had no payers and what have you done about it! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/beer.gif

[johnnyb 0]

I always get paid at the end, but saying that, all (well 99%) of my gigs are regular weekly ones.

[paula 0]

A bit of both really, (well it was)

Any new ones payment before hand, the regulars that you see week in week out at the end and the only time I get paid the day after is for the caravan park but I'm usually on site anyway on the ocassions I've left straight after then I receive the money at some time during the night.

 

I wouldnt tolerate non payers at all!

I'd be going home with something or they'd be going home with out something http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/tongue.gif

[Peteee 0]

Hi

Mostly with private clients we take an up front non returnable deposit and advance balance payment 14 days prior to the gig or cash/bankers order at the start of the gig.

Most of my private clients are at hotels weddings etc and they prefer to pay in advance anyway to save messing with loads of cah on the night and they expect this as most hotels adopt this system.

If we are doing corporate gigs for hotels themselves or companies usually invoice them and they settle in 30 days

Those that try to extend the 30 days are not given the option a second time. Some try for 90 days which can mean work at Christmas get paid at Easter

We tell those to http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/censored.gif Off and go elsewhere in short jerks...

Regular trusted private clients are sometimes cash on the night on arrival., .

The danger with this is I have known a couple of my gigs where my fees get put over the bar for the organisers drinks and they then try to get me to invoice them.

A well know firm of accountants caught me on this one night and it took me 6 weeks to get my fees. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/014.gif

[tonyj 0]

my regular hotel work pay me within 7 days. if i'm doing a private booking i'll take a deposit in advance but i have found that in Blackpool and surrounding area i get paid at the end of the night, however if i'm working East Lancashire/Yorkshire they tend to pay as i'm setting up. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

 

[Tonsk 0]

It varies for me also..

 

I like to get paid at the start of the night... Infact it says so in my t &c's.. Most people dont though and pay at the end of the night...

 

I REALLY hate the gigs where you have to ask for the money http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/mad.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/wallbash.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/188.gif When they make you feel like an inconvenience, even though you have entertained them all night... the http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/censored.gif ers...

 

I do a regular hotel gig as well who I get paid for at the next gig... So if I do one this weekend, I get the cheque next time I am there... Not all bad apart from did one wednesday and aint back until the 15th Nov... Bugger

 

 

[Smooth Criminal Ross 0]

Mainly at the end of the night

 

 

but we are gonna start putting on our sheets, to pay at the beginning, cos, like someone said, its horrible having to actually ask them whose paying.

 

We did an 18th once, and they nearly left without paying, we asked and they were like er...."whose paying for the DJ" and it was all confusing, and we almost didnt get paid, but luckily we did, otherwise we'd of sued.lol http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/188.gif

[Whisky In A Vase 0]

At present always at the end and never had a problem. But listening to some ogf your comments I may start asking for it at the start of the night 'cos why wait untill I do have a problem

[ChrisPointon 0]

I reach a compromise with my clients, and get paid at the start of the Evening, but AFTER the gear has been set up, since it would take me around 45 minutes to "do a runner" after being paid, and I think somebody might notice if I tried it http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/smile.gif

 

I insist on this, and it is enforced in my T&C's of booking, regardless of the gear already being set up, no fee, then no music. After all it is far easier for them to do a disappearing act without paying, than for me to disappear without working!.

 

The only exceptions to this are regular bookings where account facilities are set up, usually 30 days and paid by direct debit, but this is a very rare occurance these days often the landlord / managers will pay by cash / cheque and get a receipt for each booking.

 

QUOTE

otherwise we'd of sued.lol

 

Seriously, this is actually more difficult than it sounds, and costly. Even with the introduction of the small claims procedures, suing somebody for a relatively small amount of money is still very time consuming. Yes, it's still worthwhile persuing it on principle, but don't get any illusions that your customer will default on payment on Friday, and the judgment will be awarded by Tuesday. I'm still awaiting payment awarded in my favour back in March 2002 and even after a CCJ being awarded against them, i'm still waiting. They even made an offer of 50p per week to the court which the court is actively CONSIDERING!!!!!! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/188.gif http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/188.gif

[Paul Smith 0]

This year I changed my policy on payment and now receive the majority 14 days before the event. The main reason for doing this was I got fed up chasing after the one with the cash on the night. Most were no problem but there were those that like to give you the run-around.

 

There are some that I get paid for after the event but only if I trust them ie regular clients. The problem with entertainment is that if you don't get paid you can't take it back and resorting to legal mesures is, as Chris has mentioned, a long, slow and expensive business. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/014.gif

 

When I started out I did some work for an agency. At the start it was always cash on the night but then I did one where they were going to pay me after the event (within 7 days they said). 6 weeks on I was still phoning for the money & got excuse after excuse so I went and sat in their office and complained loudly until they paid up - needless to say I don't accept work from them now unless it is payment up front.

 

I've been self employed for 15 years now and have only ever had one bad debt. This would've been two but I finally received payment on friday for work I did for a major hotel chain in March this year - no names but everyone has heard of them. What forced the issue was I refused to drop everything to help them out when they were desperate last week giving the slow payment as my reason. It could've gone the other way but I had to do something. I think some of these corporate entities believe we are so desperate for their custom that we don't mind not getting paid occasionally - well I am not one of them.

 

PaulS

[kazzachi 0]

Is it just me? I never have a problem getting paid!

 

I mostly get my client begging to pay me at the beginning of the gig... but I say No! I then say for them to pay me at the end when they are happy with the job that I have done... if they are not happy then I dont want paying. I state that should they not be happy then they MUST ensure they tell me before the end because I then have the chance to rectify things - but if they leave it til the end to tell me they are not happy then I dont have the opportunity to do anything about it and will expect payment!

 

This really does work...... I have never not been paid - it also gives the client the confidence that you are going to do your absolute best to give them a good party. This is not something I would recommend to anybody who has not been dj-ing for very long however. I have the confidence to read the crowd, know how and when to change music and keep everyone happy.

 

Having said the above - last minute parties I would never offer this guarantee..... as Kev found to his cost!.... I am alway a little suspicious when a last minute gig comes in.... and ensure I am paid before I do anything... even unloading.... I have turned up so obviously intend to do the gig - so if the client if intent on paying you, then they will have no worries about handing over the readies before you unload.

[Steve 0]

I always ask for payment on the night. If its at the start or the end I suppose its up to whos paying but ive never had a problem getting money from customers. Suppose being resident at a hotel I can get their details if I need them http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

 

Just this year Ive started introducing £50 non-ref. deposit. Used to work totally on trust basis which has never caused a problem but got more and more people wanting to pay a deposit...just to confirm things in their mind i guess!

 

May start asking at start of a night but most work / services is paid for after what you are paying for has been delivered...

 

Steve

[Gary 0]

Thankfully, I now invoice the client (hotel) monthly, and receive a cheque back within 3 or 4 days.

 

Near the beginning of my DJ'ing career, I did get one punter at a village hall 18th party who said he wasnt going to pay as he felt that the volume wasnt lound enough (several young people had asked for it to be turned up, but the old fougies were asking for it to be turned down). Funnily enough, the birthday boy didnt ask me once during the night for any volume changes either way.

 

I stood my ground, and showed him the photocopy of the signed contract etc..etc..

 

Next, I moved my car so close to the double fire exit, that the fire exit doors couldnt be closed, and reminded him that the security deposit on the hall was forfeit if the hall was not vacated by X:time, and pointed out that the security deposit was considerably more than the balance for my services. Which would he rather loose?

 

He then handed over the sealed envelope with "Disco" written on it, with the correct cash inside. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

[Steve 0]

Yeah some people WILL try that sort of thing...remember when I first started djing, asking for money at the end of an evening, you on your own surrounded by many drunk guests wasn't the best set up you could wish for!

 

Luckily now Ive managed to secure a much nicer residency from when I first started working in nearly any city centre hotel round here; 4 star country house place....99.9% always spot on bride and groom, family and guests who you never have any trouble or 'stories' when getting paid.

 

Bet a few on here have heard a variety 'sorry we can't pay you this evening excuses'!

 

Steve

[paula 0]

QUOTE

Bet a few on here have heard a variety 'sorry we can't pay you this evening excuses'!

NO!!! NEVER!!! http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/188.gif

[Eskie 0]

I went to a friends christening today, at which they had a disco (I didn't do it cos I very rarely do christenings, kids parties etc. Not my cup of tea at all!).

The dj started at 5.30 and 2 hours later one of his decks packed up. There was a period of silence for a few minutes (he hadn't brought any spare decks with him) and then eventually he played a track. He was unable to repair the faulty deck and so played pre-mixed compilation albums so that there wouldn't be any gaps between tracks. This obviously meant that

A) he wasn't selecting appropriate music for the function, and

B) he was basically doing sod-all for much of the night.

 

My mates wife Sam came upto me (at around 8.30) and asked for my opinion of whether she should should pay the DJ the full amount. She told me he was charging £45 per hour which totalled £225 for the 5 hours he was booked. She reasoned that he should receive full pay for the first 2 hours as he was playing normally then, but for the remaining hours she thought he should get about half the fee, meaning paying him around £150

I replied that if it had of happened to me I would not expect to receive the full amount and I would have made an offer to the client, and would be happy to have received £150.

In the meantime her husband (my mate, Ray) who was pretty pi$$ed by now, went upto to chat with the DJ. The dj asked for his money. Ray asked the dj did he expect the full amount and the dj replied that he'd knock 1 hour off so would charge £180, so Ray agreed on that price but bear in mind that Ray was far from coherent at this stage.

Sam had no idea that Ray was going upto the dj and was not happy that he'd agreed that price and felt that he should get no more than £150 and asked me just as I was leaving whether I thought she could go up and tell the dj that £180 was not acceptable. I told her that I thought she was right and to talk to the dj.

 

I have no idea of what the final outcome was as I had to leave at that stage but Sam is gonna call me tomorrow to let me know.

 

Just wondered what others on here would have done if you had been the dj in the above scenario?

[Gary 0]

I dont think that I've ever been in a situation of only having 2 decks. I wont say how many tracks I can cue up at a time now, it'll scare the technophobes. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/scared.gif

 

However, IF I was the DJ with two decks, and one broke down, I would explain the situation to the audience, and IF I couldnt hardwire/work around it, then I would still select the tunes that I felt were right for the crowd at the various times of the evening, but would have to voice-over the gaps. Certainly wouldnt use compilation albums.

 

As for payment, I wouldn't give a £ per hour discount etc...I would offer a percentage discount BEFORE the host could even suggest his/her own idea of a discount.

[Tonsk 0]

I agree with Gary...

 

I always take backup amps, mixer etc but not CD players.. But then I always take my minidisk player (and quite a few minidisks) with me for this reason.

 

I also use the Denon DND9000 which allows 2 tracks to be played per drive so should never have the problem....

 

If, however, it ever did - I would immediately speak to the person that booked me and offer the discount before they could mention it (after checking that the deck was defo down!) - That way you can apologise and tell them what you are prepared to do about it - Showing that you are professional even though your equipment may have let you down....

 

I would also never play mixes.... You're a DJ, we speak on microphones all the time so as long as the audience knew what had happened, you can laugh and joke with them about it and build a different kind of rapport - complete personality rather than part personality & part music like usual.......

 

[Eskie 0]

No, these guys seemed scared of the mic and hardly used it all night, even when they had to change the cd on the 1 cd player that was working. There was sometimes a silence for 20 or so seconds, but they still never used the mic!

I do realise that the vast majority of DJ's on here will probably bring some sort of back-up equipment to get them out of a nightmare scenario like the one described above, so the question isn't do you have back-up equipment, it's simply how would you respond to the client? would you be pro-active or reactive?

 

[paula 0]

QUOTE

Just wondered what others on here would have done if you had been the dj in the above scenario?

 

I cant think of anything worse happening than to find Mr Mo at one of my gigs http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/fear.gif so if I was the dj for that do, then I would have turned into a gibberish wreck. http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/071.gif and thats before the cd player packed up http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif

 

This must be a dj's worst nightmare with regards to equipment failure, I've been in a situation where a deck has packed up but that was back in the days of 2 tt's and a cd deck so not a prob and no need to reduce fee's but with what happened at the above gig, would of done me tottally and thats the embarssement alone, basically in that situation your client could of done the job themselves, there's no art to changing a cd over every now and then! So I'd have felt like I hadnt done any work, and it would of been my own stupidty not to have had a spare or get a spare,

My apologise that I would of made for the http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/censored.gif night would most definately not be enough so I couldnt of charged if that was me and I can see there point in wanting to reduce the actual fee.

 

 

 

 

Eskie you make it sound like there were 2 dj's(these guys) so for a start one of them could of gone and got a player depending on how far away they lived and if were talking 2 hours into a gig that started at 5, well the large Dixons/Currys are open until late.

 

 

I gather you never gave them the dju address? http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/laugh.gif

 

It doesnt matter what trade your in if your equipment fails you lose money and you should expect to lose it as well!!!!!

 

 

[C.S 0]

Must admit if this happened to me i would be working twice as hard and would have given a discount aswell,my mic probably would have melted!

As far as payment is concerned, Mobiles=on the night cash,one club nightly in advance and another club once a month via bank transfer on an agreed date.

[kazzachi 0]

what a horrible situation - unfortunately as your mate (p@ssed or not) had agreed to a slightly reduced price I doubt very much whether these guys would give any more money off - an agreement is an agreement.

 

Obviously these fellas weren't professionals - most of what we would have done has been covered - yes I would have made sure spares were carried and failing that, made a quick call to a mate or a local disco hire shop and paid for hire and delivery to the gig - its not anybody elses problem but our own and we are the ones who have to fix it.

 

If nothing could have been done, I personally would have gone to the client, explained the problem, and guaranteed that although I was only working off one cd player, I would not let it become a problem and hope that their enjoyment of the evening would not be tarnished by this technical fault! At the end of the evening I would ask the client if they were happy - if they see that the problem with only having one deck had affected the party atmosphere I would ask them what they thought would be a fair discount.

 

If you are open and honest with your client - having told them about the fault and that you believed that it would not seriously affect the party, then I am sure most of us would still pick up the full fee...... I bet we would also choose discs where there was three or four tunes that we could run back to back with a quick flick between tracks - then a talky bit, then the same again.... but this once again shows the difference between the professionals and the cowboys!

[Eskie 0]

QUOTE

Eskie you make it sound like there were 2 dj's(these guys) so for a start one of them could of gone and got a player depending on how far away they lived and if were talking 2 hours into a gig that started at 5, well the large Dixons/Currys are open until late.

I paid less attention to these 2 guys than I would usually do if I'm at a function where there's a DJ. Probably cos it was a Christening and I was chatting with some friends and the only people interested in dancing were kids and 1 or 2 mums!

I did notice though that they had 2 smallish speakers not on stands & 2 light screens http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/rolleyes.gif and that was about it, talk about the bare necessities! They were up on a stage so have no idea what type of CD players, mixer etc they had. I noticed they had 1 moonflower type effect perched on top of one of the light screens, it looked really impressive http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Probably cos I wasn't really taking any notice of them that it didn't even occur to me that as there was 2 of them, one of them should/could have gone home to pick up another cd player!

[kazzachi 0]

in other words... esk was having a few! bless him!

 

One thing Eskie has bought up, which I find unbelievable, is that some djs still put their speakers on the floor.... not up on stands! Why oh why oh why! (not talking stacks here - but usual wedding type speakers)

[McCardle 1]

For smaller gigs I still put my speakers on the floor since even with the most careful dj's and the most expensive stands accidents still do happen, and where there are drunks and trouble can break out, not to mention an over enthusiastic Macerena! the speakers are usually the first things to go over. Not a pleasant thought, 25 or 30kg of speaker toppling upon your audiences head regardless of whose fault it was http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/scared.gif it only takes a few seconds for accidents to happen and that is exactly what a stand with an heavy object is especially when placed at the same level as the audience and right next to a dancefloor.

 

For larger gigs, I use the relatively solid base (40kg) of a subwoofer and place the full range cabs on poles coming from the bass bins, much more stable http://www.dj-forum.co.uk/html/emoticons/thumbup.gif

 

As for the problem mentioned above, there is really no reason for this to ever happen, and so no reason to worry about how to get around it. I followed some advice that Chris P gave, and bought a Personal CD Player with shock memory - (£15 from E-Bay) as a back up, not perfect but it gets you out of the brown sticky stuff. A few months on it paid off, I got a CD stuck in one of Trays of my Dual Player and had to use this unit for a few hours. I was glad I bought it, and non of the audience were any the wiser so no refunds and no panic.

Edited November 3, 2003 by McCardle